Thank you very much, Chair. I appreciate that.
Warm thanks to all of the witnesses for coming and joining us today.
I want to ask a question about understanding the processing delays. I'd like to hear from the witnesses on a question that I put to the deputy minister at our last meeting. VAC service standards indicate that in normal circumstances, as we talked about today, 80% of the decisions should be made in the first 16 weeks. It would appear that we're kind of left to wonder what constitutes normal circumstances, given that, according to the deputy minister, the very first backlog appeared back in the 1920s, it seems.
In any case, we've heard a lot about how more staff and better streamlined decision-making are important, but we have to understand also the specific reason that a claim might not meet that standard beyond the bureaucratic staffing issue that may exist. There are three things I'd like to ask you about. Could you describe what you feel normal circumstances would be under the VAC standard? What's the reality in terms of why fewer people than 80% were moved through the processing? What steps do you think VAC could be taking to better serve those veterans who have a claim that would take longer than the average—that 20% or, as the case may be, larger than 20%, that go beyond normal circumstances?
Can you help us out there? I ask the question to each of the witnesses and to whoever would like to dive into it.